AUGUST 8, 2020
LOS ANGELES FREE PRESS
PAGE 3
THIS SECRECY IS NO ACCIDENT past five years as to exactly what this branch is up to, it’s not difficult to realize thatTrump and Wolf could warp its responsibilities and permissions when resurrecting it.There were twenty-two different components that combined to make the DHS — can you name what each of them can and cannot do?
ERI PAPPAS
CONTRIBUTING WRITER Donald Trump’s administration has taken ownership of the federal forces violently policing the streets of Portland, Oregon, throughout most of July.The troops are alleged to be members of several federal agencies; however, which agencies have been deployed, and with what permission, has not been explained. THIS SECRECY IS NO ACCIDENT.
There have been reports of officers in NewYorkCityoperatingwithsimilartactics. A video has circulated of officers yanking Nikki Stone, an 18-year-old trans woman, out of a group of demonstrators and forcing her into an unmarked van. This sparked concerns that Trump had followed through on his threat to police other Democrat-led cities with similar occupation.
These unmarked federally deployed agents operate under unknown leadership, with unknown training, and have unknown intentions. We believe the federal troops are a blatant scare tactic, deployed through loopholes in the legal system.We recognize them as an enforcing body of an authoritarian regime, not of the American promise of a democracy. In an official statement on Jul. 29, Oregon Governor Kate Brown announced she and the White House had come to an agreement that the unrequested federal troops would begin a “phased withdrawal” thefollowingday.Oregonstatepolicewould assume the responsibility of safekeeping Portland’s courthouse, while, presumably, protecting protesters’ First Amendment rights. Trump has maintained his stance on the use of this force being constitutional in order to safeguard the city’s courthouse, which is federal property. Protesters have gathered there to oppose police brutality and to fight for justice for Black people in the wake of the killings of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, and countless others. According to reports from Portland, the forces appear to have backed off. Nights
However, on Twitter, the NYPD has claimed responsibility for the arrest, stating that it was standard procedure for an individual with a warrant, like they had for Stone who allegedly destroyed police cameras earlier this month at the City Hall encampment.
A federal agent stands guard in front of the Mark O. Hatfield Federal Courthouse in downtown Portland, Oregon. Tear gas and ‘less lethal’ munitions were used against protesters shortly after midnight on July 25th. (Photo By: Jake Borden)
have seen peaceful protests, monitored by state police without altercation. However, Trump tweeted on Jul. 31, “Homeland security is not leaving Portland until local police complete cleanup ofAnarchists and Agitators!”Acting Secretary of Homeland Security, Chad Wolf told Fox News that federal troops would remain until the courthouse is “safe and secure.” So we can suspect that the troops are still present (a possibility further enforced by the governor’s unspecific “phased with-
drawal”), and are waiting for protesters to become comfortable with less violent state police before resuming their aggressive tactics. Video footage has repeatedly shown camouflaged troops escalating their use of force without apparent justification.Agents nightly combated protesters with tear gas, munitions, and batons, and grabbed people off the streets and took them to unmarked whitevanswithoutproperarrestprocedures.
Cops Gone Wild
This Article Was Originally Printed in 1969
MYA C TAYLOR
CONTRIBUTING WRITER
EDITOR-IN-CHIEF
America’s police forces are much more uptight than they used to be. Six short years ago Jack Ruby walked right up to a crowd of 75 cops in the basement of the Dallas PD, pulled out a gun and fired into their midst, killing the man they were supposedly guarding. Anyone who tried that today would be shot dead in his tracks, unless it was part of the script.
Both Ivan Goldman and Mike Rothmiller, co-authors of the New YorkTimesandLosAngelesTimes bestselling book “L.A. Secret Police,” spoke to the Los Angeles Free Press about their concerns on recent police misconduct. Goldman believes the Los AngelesPoliceDepartment(LAPD) has had a long history of being racist, militaristic and serving as an occupying force in minority areas but, as society socially advances, he argues that the LAPD was worse 30 years ago than it is now.
In Los Angeles and elsewhere police have organized themselves into an effective political force to fight off police review boards and all threats to department autonomy. Attempts to return police control to the community have proven feeble compared to police counter attacks. Swinish propaganda defeated New York’s police review board in a 1965 election and, since then, the Bircher slogan “support your local police” has become part of normal political rhetoric.
AlthoughGoldmanbelievesthat close attention should be paid to police departments, he urges the public to increase their vigilance to include Sheriff's departments too.
VERY RECENTLY: LAPD The first police brutality indictment in recent years was returned against officer J. R. Salyer of foothill division by the County Grand Jury. Salyer has already served a 30day suspension for assault with a deadly weapon on a prisoner in his custody. His victim is suing the city for $100,000.
“Thecountycommissionershave very little oversight over the sheriff and this guy [Alex] Villanueva, he’s a dangerous guy,” Goldman said. Goldman acknowledged that thoughSheriffVillanuevawasvoted in by “well meaning liberals,” the powerVillanuevahasoverthepolice unions may lead to protections against brutality.
Protestors confront members of the Palmdale Sheriff’s Station during a protest outside of their office building in Palmdale, California on June 20th, 2020. (Photo: Zach Lowry / Redux Pictures)
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I’m less worried about what’s unlawful (part of me still trusts, for some reason, that someone somewhere in the justice system will do something about this) about the secret police and am more worried about what is, somehow, lawful about this administration’s exercise of the darkest and most authoritarian practices of law enforcement.
Cops Gone Unchanged
RAY GAVIOTA
The mother of Donald Lee Oughten, the handicapped youth, who was caught in a crossfire between two triggerhappy cops, has filed suit for $1 million. The coroner’s finding of “justifiable homicide” cast new doubts upon administrative juggling of the coroner’s office. Such a verdict makes people question the meaning of “law enforcement” and raises the question that should have been asked as soon as the first Kennedy was shotJust who is doing the crime in the streets?
The harrowing force practices aside, what’s striking about the happenings in Portland is that the Trump administration has found a way for it to be legal, or close enough to it for lawmakers not to have grounds for immediate counteraction.Take, for example, one of the agencies with troops purportedly on the ground: the Federal Protective Service. Its most recent public report was released, notably, in 2015. The report states the agency’s responsibilities include “protecting U.S. government facilities.” Without any public update in the
The message here: we are watching, and we will getcha. That the onus is on NYPD, rather than federal agents, does not offer much consolation. Police departments are so “obnoxious,” to put it mildly and to quote Governor Cuomo’s press conference statement, that their norm is an emulation of the paramilitary practices of Portland’s secret police.
“Police unions are not like other unions,” he said. “They want good pay and benefits for their members, but sometimes they want their members to get away with murder or assault.”
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Rothermiller, a former LAPD officer and current author, agrees that close attention should be given to federal agencies to prevent abuse of authority. In particular, Rothmiller expressed concern over spying tactics utilized by the LAPD and the FBI. He argues both agencies have a history of spying on politicians (frequently), then coming up with excuses if misconduct is unveiled. He believes that investigating a politician can be justified and even sometimes necessary, but notes oftentimes law officials play “a very cautious word game to keep an investigation going,” even after discovering exonerating evidence. BothRothmillerandGoldman’s concerns are not groundless. Earlier last month, criminal charges were filedagainstthreeLosAngelesPolice Department (LAPD) officers who were accused of falsifying records. Theofficers,BraxtonShaw,Michael Coblentz and Nicolas Martinez allegedlytamperedwithfieldinterview cardswhichfalselyportrayedpeople asgangmembers.AccordingtoThe LA Times, the District Attorney's officeconfirmedthemisconducthas affected over 750 defendants. “Wealwayshearaboutgoodcops and bad cops. The problem is, that when you have a bad cop do something awful and you have three or four good cops who witness it, the odds are pretty good that those good cops will lie on behalf of the bad cop. So my question is, how good are those good cops?” says Ivan Goldman.
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